I. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to communication systems and, in particular, to systems and methods for testing network systems and processors.
II. Background and Material Information
Probes can be used to test a communication network, including any part of the network, such as network nodes, devices, components, interfaces, links, protocols, and the like. For example, in a simple network consisting of two routers connected by a communication link (such as an Internet Protocol (IP) network), a probe may be configured at each router to measure various parameters including packet loss, jitter, latency, etc. Each of the probes may be a hardware-type probe, a software-type probe, or a combination of the two.
When a network service provider offers network services to a customer, they usually agree on one or more performance or service levels to be provided by the network. For example, a customer may have two types of traffic, such as voice traffic and email traffic, each of which may require a different level of service. In this example, the customer may enter into a Service Level Agreement (SLA) that provides a higher level of service (e.g., low jitter, low latency, and low packet loss) to voice traffic, and a lower level of service (e.g., best efforts) to email traffic. The network service provider and the customer will then want to know whether the performance parameters of the SLA are being met. If the service provider has other SLAs for other customers, the performance associated with those other customers will also be of interest.
To that end, probes have typically been deployed to monitor each customer and/or service. Although it may be useful to accurately monitor performance for every customer, in a complex network environment with a variety of customers and/or services, deploying a probe at/to each customer or service interface is not practical (e.g., it is cost prohibitive). Therefore, there is a need to provide a system and method that can monitor the performance of customers and/or services without requiring the deployment of a dedicated hardware and/or software probe to each customer location and/or interface.